Published: Thursday, June 5, 2014 at 08:58 AM.

Stormie Raines of Lincolnton said she saw a black bear cross Rash Road right in front of her car around 10:45 p.m. Wednesday. The bear even looked back at her before running away, she said.

“When I got back to my house I was kind of afraid to get out the car because I was like, ‘What if it’s sitting here staring at me,” Raines said.

“I just had to sit there for a minute because I didn’t think there were bears anywhere around here.”

A second reported bear sighting came around 7:30 a.m. Thursday on the 100 block of Lincoln Street. Dean Black, owner of Dean’s Superette, said a woman stopped at his store saying she had seen a bear that morning.

“I was outside pumping gas when a lady stopped in the road blowing her horn,” Black said. “Then she pulled in here and told me and I saw the bear and it went across the fence.”

Stormie Raines of Lincolnton said she saw a black bear cross Rash Road right in front of her car around 10:45 p.m. Wednesday. The bear even looked back at her before running away, she said.

“When I got back to my house I was kind of afraid to get out the car because I was like, ‘What if it’s sitting here staring at me,” Raines said.

“I just had to sit there for a minute because I didn’t think there were bears anywhere around here.”

A second reported bear sighting came around 7:30 a.m. Thursday on the 100 block of Lincoln Street. Dean Black, owner of Dean’s Superette, said a woman stopped at his store saying she had seen a bear that morning.

“I was outside pumping gas when a lady stopped in the road blowing her horn,” Black said. “Then she pulled in here and told me and I saw the bear and it went across the fence.”

Black, who has worked and owned the gas station for 43 years, said a bear doesn’t scare him.

Especially since it was going in the opposite direction when it was seen, he said.